R7: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Alexander III.
Salutation and praise of the pope's calling
Hildegard greets Pope Alexander, praises his God-given authority and role as source of spiritual life, and calls him to let God's justice shine in the Church.
To Alexander, the apostolic one. Hildegard. O highest and glorious person, who were first established through the word of God, through which every creature, rational and irrational, was made in its own kind.✦ To you especially that same word granted the keys of the heavenly kingdom through the garment of its humanity — namely, the power of binding and loosing.✦1 You also, most excellent father, are the source of all spiritual persons.2 Let the trumpet of God's justice sound in the church, which shines clothed in various ornaments.✦ While others, by imitating the life of the saints, offer good examples to others. And if they do anything right, they attribute it to God and not to themselves.
Call to mercy amid ecclesial darkness
Hildegard urges the pope, as a loving pastoral figure, to rebuke and heal God's people, shining like the morning star in a Church darkened by schism.
They take joy in good examples, following earlier saints who tamed their own flesh. And they strengthened themselves with the clear victory of the heavenly army, fighting against the devil's vices. And with good will they looked toward God, like angels. So you too, gentle father, imitate the kind father who slaughtered the fattened calf and received with joy his repentant son returning to him.✦ And he washed the wounds inflicted by robbers with wine, confused in the darkness.✦ This signifies the harshness of rebuke and the mercy of compassion. And be the morning star that ran ahead of the sun, in the church that, long confused by the darkness of schism, lacks the light of God's justice.✦ And you therefore, according to God's zeal, rebuke, and anoint the penitent with the oil of mercy.
Humble petition for protection and help
Hildegard humbly asks the pope to aid her community against opposition and not to disregard her petition and messengers.
Because God wants mercy more than burnt offerings.✦ Now, O most gentle father, I and my sisters bend our knees before your paternal care. Praying that you would deign to look upon the poverty and lowly state of this poor woman. We who are now in great sadness, because the abbot of the mountain of Saint Disibod and his brothers are opposing the privileges and the election that we have always held. About which we must always exercise great caution, lest it be taken away from us in any way, because if they would not grant us God-fearing and religious people such as we seek, our spiritual life would be entirely destroyed among us. Therefore, my Lord, for the sake of God, help us. So that we may either obtain our election, or freely seek out and receive others, wherever we can, who will provide for us according to God's will and our benefit. Now again we ask you, most devout father, do not despise our petition and these messengers, who have turned aside to us seeking you, having been warned through our faithful friend.
Prayer for mercy, light, and shared joy
Hildegard prays that the pope may receive eternal joy and light, and that through his help they may now rejoice together in the Lord.
And please do this for us: what they are seeking to obtain from you. Grant that after the end of this life, which is already declining toward evening, you may come into the unfailing light and hear the sweet voice of the Lord. Well done, good servant. Because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord. Therefore, then, incline the ears of your piety to our supplications, and be a bright day to us and to them. so that through your generous indulgence we may together rejoice in the Lord. And may you yourself always rejoice in eternal happiness.
Read the original Latin
Alexandro apostolico. hildegardis. O summa et gloriosa persona quę primum constituta es per uerbum dei per quod omnis creatura racionalis et irracionalis in genere suo facta est. tibi specialiter idem uerbum claues regni celestis per indumentum humanitatis suę scilicet ligandi atque soluendi potestatem concessit. Tu quoque excellentissime pater materia omnium spiritualium personarum existis. quę tuba iusticię dei sonant in ęcclesia quę uarijs ornamentis circumamicta fulget. dum alij alijs bona exempla uitam sanctorum imitando prebent. qui et si quid recti agunt deo et non sibi adtribuunt.
et de bonis imitatoribus suis gaudent sequentes priores sanctos qui carnem suam domabant. et seipsos cum manifesta uictoria celestis milicię contra uicia diaboli pugnantes roborabant. et cum bona uoluntate uelut angeli in deum aspiciebant. Sic et tu o mitis pater benignum patrem imitare qui penitentem filium et ad se reuertentem saginatum uitulum propter illum occidens cum gaudio suscepit. et sauciati ex latronibus uulnera uino lauit caligine confusa. asperitatem correptionis et pietatem misericordię designat. et stella matutina quę solem diei precucurrit esto in ęcclesia quę diu scismatis caligine confusa lumine iusticię dei caret. Et tu ergo secundum zelum dei corripe et oleo misericordię penitentes unge.
quoniam deus magis uult misericordiam quam holocaustum. Nunc o mitissime pater ego et sorores mee genua nostra coram paterna pietate tua flectimus. orantes ut digneris paupertatem pauperculę formę respicere. quę nunc in magna tristicia sumus eo quod abbas de monte sancti Dysibodi et fratres eius priuilegiis et electioni nostrę contradicunt quam semper habuimus. de qua semper magna cautela preuidendum nobis est ne aliquatenus nobis tollatur quia si nobis timoratos et religiosos quales querimus non concederent religio spiritalis omnino in nobis destrueretur. Vnde domine mi propter deum adiuua nos. ut uel electionem nostram obtineamus uel alios ubi possimus qui nos secundum deum et utilitatem nostram procurent libere queramus et accipiamus. Nunc iterum rogamus te pijssime pater ne peticionem nostram et etiam nuncios istos despicias qui per fidelem amicum nostrum moniti te petentes ad nos diuerterunt.
et hoc quod apud te obtinere querunt facias. quatenus post finem huius uitę quę ad uesperum iam declinat. in indeficientem lucem peruenias et dulcem uocem domini audias. Euge serue bone. quia super pauca fuisti fidelis super multa te constituam intra in gaudium domini tui. Inclina ergo supplicationibus nostris aures tuę pietatis et nobis et illis clara dies sis. ut ex indulgentia tuę largitatis communiter domino gratulemur. quatenus et tu in eterna felicitate semper gaudeas.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
- ↩Matt.16.19 — I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
- ↩1Thess.4.16 — For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
- ↩Luke.15.23-Luke.15.24 — And bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. Luke.15.24 — because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and has been found. And they began to celebrate.
- ↩Luke.10.34 — and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
- ↩Rev.22.16 — I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.
- ↩Hos.6.6 — For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Notes
- 1 ↩The 'word' (uerbum) here likely refers to Christ, who grants the keys of the kingdom; the imagery of the 'garment of humanity' evokes the Incarnation as the means by which this authority is conveyed.
- 2 ↩Materia is rendered as 'source' rather than 'matter' to convey the sense of the pope as the foundational origin or material cause of spiritual persons in the Church.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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